London Guantánamo Campaign

The London Guantánamo has been campaigning since 2006 for the return of all British residents from the Guantánamo Bay prison camp, the release of all prisoners, the closure of this prison and other similar prisons and an end to the practice of extraordinary rendition. Human rights for all.

Friday, February 27, 2015

The last British
resident held at Guantánamo entered his 14th year of detention there
without charge or trial on 14 February; Shaker Aamer, a Saudi national, who has
a British family in south London, has been cleared for release on several
occasions since 2007.

Following a meeting
between David Cameron and Barack Obama in Washington last month, the US
president said he would prioritise Aamer’s case, however as Aamer marked his 13th
anniversary at Guantánamo, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel admitted that his
case was not a priority and was not on his desk. This is in spite of the
special relationship between the US and the UK and growing concerns following a
law tabled and passed by the US Senate to prevent any more prisoners being
released before the next US election at the end of 2016.

On 14 February, more than 100 people joined the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign
at a protest it held to mark 13 years of Shaker Aamer being held at Guantánamo
without charge or trial. The demonstration started at around midday with a
colourful display opposite the Houses of Parliament and stopped traffic in
Parliament Square and on Westminster Bridge as it progressed to Downing Street.
Short speeches were given opposite Downing Street and a letter was delivered to
the Prime Minister’s residence at the end of the demonstration. Media of the
demonstration:

On 4 February, a
38-year old Yemeni prisoner, Khalid Ahmed Qasim, who has been held at
Guantánamo without charge or trial since May 2002, had his ongoing detention
reviewed by the prison review board. After more than 13 years, the best excuse
the Pentagon can come up for his continued detention is he “may have fought for
the Taliban in Afghanistan and is suspected of joining al Qaeda.” At
Guantánamo, he has taken part in hunger strikes and has been involved in many
“disciplinary infractions including attacking and threatening guards and
splashing bodily fluids on them”.

Egyptian prisoner,
57-year old Tarek El-Sawah, who had his review in January, has been cleared for
release. El-Sawah, who has contracted a number of illnesses at Guantánamo and
is reported to be morbidly obese, once faced charges which were later dropped
without reason by the US government.

There has been
good and bad news for former Canadian child prisoner Omar Khadr this month: in
early February, King’s University in Edmonton offered him a place to study as a
mature student provided his application for bail, which will be heard at the
end of March, is successful. For the past 6 years, teachers from the university
have helped Khadr to study for his high school diploma equivalent by
correspondence when he was at Guantánamo and in person since his return to
Canada.

On 13 February,
a federal judge rejected an application brought by several media organisations
to be able to interview Khadr in prison, claiming that the ban by wardens, as
the facilities are unsuitable, was not political or a breach of their rights.
Omar Khadr has never been given the opportunity to present his side to his own
story – either in court or to the public – which has instead allowed the
questionable claims made about him by the US and Canadian governments to
dominate.

Following the
quashing of the military commission conviction of a former Sudanese prisoner in
January, following a major decision in the ongoing case of Ali Hamza Al-Bahlul
last year, on 18 February, former Australian prisoner David Hicks, who was
first prisoner to be convicted in 2007 had his conviction quashed on the sole
charge of providing material support for terrorism, which is not recognised as
a war crimes and was applied with retroactive effect.

Under a plea
bargain, which was his only way out of Guantánamo after the Australian
government refused to make representations on his behalf, Hicks entered an
Alford plea whereby he pleaded guilty without admitting the charges, thereby
maintaining his innocence. According to the US, he waived his right to appeal
as part of the plea bargain, however his lawyers later demonstrated that the
paperwork had been filed after the deadline and thus he had not waived this
right. Hicks returned to Australia in 2007, where he served the rest of his
sentence in jail there.

The Australian
government which was aware of and complicit in his torture has continued to
vilify him and the media in Australia has continued to brand him a “terrorist”
and call for his prosecution, even though there is no legal basis for this. No
apology has been offered by the Australian or US governments and Hicks has said
he will not seek compensation. In an editorial in The Age on 27
February, Hicks stated, “To just focus on why I was inAfghanistan and
ignore the crimes committed against us in Guantanamo, seems to be a
diversionary tactic to try to prevent people from asking more pressing
questions around my case – like why the Australian government sold out one
of its own citizens to protect the Bush administration, and why successive
Australian governments have refused to independently investigate what
happened to me. What really worries me is that because of the careless and
blatantly political way my case was handled, it means that others are more
likely to be subjected to the same treatment because those involved got
away with it.”

The pre-trial
hearing in the case of five prisoners accused of involvement in the 9/11
attacks in New York in 2001 resumed on 9 February, for the first time in six
months, only to recess after one hour after one of the defendants identified an
interpreter used by his defence team as an interpreter who had worked for the
CIA when he was “disappeared” into secret CIA prisons. Other defendants
confirmed having seen him at such facilities too.

The hearing did later resume and now that the Senate’s redacted report
into CIA torture has been published, defence lawyers can talk about the torture
their clients faced. The next hearing is scheduled for April.

Ongoing hearings also resumed in the separate military commission
pre-trial hearings of Abd Al-Nashiri on 25 February.

On 12 February,
the US Senate passed a bill that could prevent the release of more prisoners
before 2016. During the vote in a closed meeting, the bill was passed with
measures including the prohibition of transfers to Yemen for the next two years,
continuation of the ban on transfers to the United States and would suspend
international transfers of prisoners. President Obama has threatened to veto
the bill.

In a new resolution by the European
Parliament, the civil liberties, foreign affairs and human rights committees
will resume their investigation into European collusion in torture and
extraordinary rendition following new information from the Senate report into
CIA torture. The European Parliament is calling for an end to impunity and for
member states to investigate allegations of torture made against them.

On 17 February, the European Court of Human
Rights in Strasbourg rejected an appeal by the Polish government made last year
against a judgment finding it complicit in running torture facilities for the
CIA in Poland where prisoners such as Abu Zubaydah and Abd Al-Nashiri,
currently held at Guantánamo, were held and tortured. No reasons were given for
why Poland’s appeal was rejected and the state will now have to pay the two
defendants a total of €230,000, to include legal costs. According to the Bureau
for Investigative Journalism:

“However, Abu Zubaydah’s US lawyer confirmed to the Bureau that if the
money was made available they would not claim the legal costs, and that
Abu Zubaydah would be donating the full €100,000 in damages to victims of
torture.

Poland is the first
EU member state to be found guilty of complicity in the CIA’s secret detention
programme and responsible for multiple violations of the detainees’ rights.

The case concerned
the treatment of the two detainees, who were held by the CIA in Poland and
subjected to torture, incommunicado detention and secret transfer to other CIA
black sites.

Both men were
secretly rendered to Poland on December 5 2002. Al-Nashiri was taken to
Morocco on June 6 2003. Abu Zubaydah was transferred from
Poland to a black site in Guantánamo Bay on September 22 2003.

Helen Duffy,
European lawyer for Abu Zubaydah, told the Bureau the decision means that
“Poland is required to finally conduct a thorough and effective investigation,
make public information concerning its role and hold those responsible to
account”.

She added: “This is
an opportunity for Poland to reengage constructively, to address the crimes of
the past and reassert its position as a supporter of the rule of law.””

LGC Activities:

The LGC marked eight
years of regular demonstrations outside the US Embassy on Thursday 5 February.
Four people attended.

Friday, January 30, 2015

In mid-January,
British Prime Minister David Cameron met US president Barack Obama in
Washington to discuss various issues. During the talks, Cameron raised the case
of Shaker Aamer, the last British resident held at Guantánamo Bay. During the
meeting, Obama said that he would “prioritise Aamer’s case” but would still act
in a manner consistent with US national security. This cryptic public exchange
follows the fact that Aamer was cleared for release in 2007 and has never been
charged, and the British government has been seeking his release since then. It
has now been 10 years since the last British nationals were released from Guantánamo
and almost 6 since the last British resident returned to the UK. No further
information was given about why Aamer remains at Guantánamo.

Noor Uthman
Muhammed, a former prisoner from Sudan, who was released in December 2013
after serving a 34-month sentence in addition to the time he had spent at Guantánamo
after arriving there in 2002 after being convicted by a military tribunal of providing
material support to a terrorist organisation and conspiracy, has had his
charges acquitted. On 9 January the Pentagon said the conviction had been
withdrawn after an appeals court rules that material support is not a
legitimate war crime.

This news could lead to the conviction of former Australian prisoner
David Hicks being overturned as well. Hicks’ US lawyer Stephen Kenny said that
he is likely to see a similar outcome to his case soon. Charged with many offences, Hicks was found "guilty" only on the charge of conspiracy. He did not
plead guilty; he entered an Alford plea, whereby he did not admit guilt. He was
later jailed in Australia on his return to the country in 2007 as part of his
plea bargain deal, which was his only way of Guantánamo, even though an Alford
plea is not recognised under Australian law.

The US later said in January that it admits that Hicks is innocent. The
quashing of his conviction is a formality.

On 15 January, five Yemeni prisoners were released: four to Oman and one
to Estonia. There are currently 122 prisoners at the detention facility. The five
men are all in the 30s and 40s and had been cleared for release since at least
2009.

Following the current unrest in Yemen, the US has said that it will not
be returning prisoners to the country but that will not prevent the release of
Yemeni prisoners who have been cleared for release for years to safe third
countries.

A current prisoner, Mohamedou Slahi from
Mauritania, has had a redacted version of his diary telling of his life in
Guantánamo published following a battle to have it made public. He wrote it by
hand in English when he was held in solitary confinement in 2005. The book
details his journey to Guantánamo and tells of the torture and abuse he has
faced, including gang rape and beatings. Since its release, the book has become
a bestseller on Amazon and has been recommended by many writers and literary
figures.

As well as releases, periodic reviews of prisoners who are deemed too
dangerous to release continued. On 22 January, Egyptian Tariq Mahmud Ahmad Muhammad al Sawah, 57, who is suspected of
being involved in Al Qaeda operations against the US in Afghanistan had a
hearing to decide whether the US should continue to hold him or transfer him
back to Egypt. Although suspected, he faces no charges and the periodic review
board is an arbitrary administrative process which has no legal weight.

On 27 January, Yemeni Saeed Ahmed Mohammed
Abdullah Sarem Jarabh had his period review hearing. He too is suspected
of having fought for Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, even though he has never been
charged in 13 years and there is no actual evidence against him. His lawyers submitted
that “he had studied Spanish and English at Guantanamo, had headed a prison
farm planning project and had taken up painting” and was eager to
reunite with his wife and children.

Lawyers for Canadian former prisoner Omar Khadr, who is currently held
in prison in Canada and is going blind, will apply for bail in his case in
March pending the outcome of an appeal against his military tribunal conviction
in the US. As shown in the cases of Hicks and Muhammed, the validity of
military tribunal convictions is on shaky ground, but in spite of action to
overturn such convictions in the US, the Canadian government remains a strong believer
in the torture evidence-based secret plea bargain conviction given to Omar
Khadr and opposes all moves to alleviate his suffering.

New information has come to light in recent weeks about Lithuania’s role
in the extraordinary rendition programme, including new flight logs and
information about the transfer of prisoners as part of efforts by human rights
NGOs to hold the state to account for its operation of torture prisons for the
CIA.

The LGC marked the
thirteenth anniversary of Guantánamo Bay with street theatre and talks at
the US Embassy on 11 January. Around 150 people joined the demonstration,
during which the public was given a public demonstration through artistic
performance of the hypocrisy of Barack Obama over the closure of Guantánamo
Bay. Speeches were given by Jean Lambert MEP, Ben Griffin from Veterans for
Peace UK, Noa Kleinman from Amnesty International UK, Joy Hurcombe from the
Save Shaker Aamer Campaign and solicitor Louise Christian.

Our next monthly “Shut
Guantánamo!” demo, which marks eight years of our regular demonstrations outside
the US Embassy and the second anniversary of the ongoing Guantánamo hunger
strike will be on Thursday 5 February: https://www.facebook.com/events/765634710187956/

Monday, January 12, 2015

Reading the Sunday
newspapers on 11 January, one may be excused for not knowing that the date
marks 13 years since the US-run concentration camp at Guantánamo Camp opened on
11 January 2002. The ongoing hunger strike and regime of indefinite detention
for 127 prisoners almost all held wholly without charge or trial for so many
years was barely worth a mention. To a media hungry for the next sensationalist
scare story, torture and arbitrary detention are possibly too real. Providing
little more than a pretext to justify the illegal actions of governments
worldwide, the suffering of the remaining prisoners and their families otherwise
lacks importance.

street theatre

This did not
stop human rights activists across the world holding protest actions to mark
this sombre anniversary. Protest actions were held in the UK, Ireland, Mexico and the US. In
Australia, activists and singer-songwriter Les Thomas launched a new song “Guantanamo
Blues” http://thejusticecampaign.org/?page_id=1927
In the evening, activists around the world joined the London Guantánamo
Campaign and Free Omar Khadr Now
for an online Twitter storm.

street theatre

In the
afternoon, around 150 people joined the London Guantánamo Campaign for a unique
protest action outside the US Embassy in London. As organisers of the main UK
protest to mark the anniversary of Guantánamo opening over the past 8 years,
people often expect to turn up to a sea of orange jumpsuits, black hoods and
angry chanting. This year we adopted a very different approach. Realising that
13 years on, not only are people immune and accustomed to the abuses that occur
at Guantánamo Bay on a daily basis, many are simply unaware altogether. With such
little coherent coverage it is hard to know what is really happening. To address
this, we performed a piece of street theatre called “The Three Obamas”, in
which three actors, and some support, re-enacted various statements and
promises Barack Obama has made since 2008 about closing Guantánamo Bay. As
president, his first action in 2009 was to sign a decree ordering the closure
of Guantánamo Bay by 2010. Five years later, 127 men are still waiting.

Noa Kleinman, Amnesty International UK

courtesy of Faiz Baluch

The street theatre
was in two parts to reflect the period between 2011 and 2013, when Obama acknowledged
his broken promises with silence and the start of the ongoing hunger strike at
Guantánamo Bay which brought the prison camp back under the spotlight.

Ben Griffin, Veterans for Peace UK

Joy Hurcombe, Save Shaker Aamer Campaign

Jean Lambert, Green MEP for London

During the “intermission”
between the two parts, activists were addressed by speakers including solicitor
for several British nationals held in Guantánamo Bay, Louise Christian, London
Green MEP Jean Lambert, Noa Kleinman from Amnesty International UK, Ben Griffin
from Veterans for Peace UK and Joy Hurcombe from the Save Shaker Aamer
Campaign. It has now been 10 years since the last British nationals were
released from Guantánamo Bay.

Louise Christian, solicitor

While the street
theatre performance highlighted the hypocrisy of the US administration over
Guantánamo Bay and CIA torture, the speakers focused mainly on the collusion of
the British government. Pointing out that this year also marks the 800th
anniversary of the Magna Carta, it is ludicrous that British resident Shaker
Aamer remains in Guantánamo Bay after 13 years without charge or trial.
Speakers also called for an independent torture inquiry into the UK’s collusion
with the US and transparency over Britain’s role in the US’s wars on terror.
Joy Hurcombe reminded people that David Cameron will be meeting President Obama
later this month and urged people to write to the prime minister and their MP
to urge that the question of Shaker Aamer’s release to the UK feature high up
the meeting agenda. In an election year, this is also a perfect opportunity to
raise your concerns about Guantánamo Bay with local election candidates.

courtesy of Faiz Baluch

After 13
years, this is indeed who we are, along with the US and all its other allies. In
the meantime, the campaign to close Guantánamo will continue and we hope you
will join us. The London Guantánamo thanks everyone who joined us for a
successful and enlightening event, in particular the actors, singers and props
persons involved in the street theatre performance. Special thanks to our
speakers for sharing their expertise and concerns with us and to Occupy London for providing live
streaming throughout the event.

In case you
missed or did not get enough yesterday, the Islam Channel will feature a one-hour
special about the anniversary action on “The Report” at 9pm on Monday 12
January, on Sky channel 806 and Freeview.

Take action!

We hold a regular monthly demonstration calling for the closure of Guantánamo Bay and other similar prisons. The March demonstration will be on Thursday 5 March at 12-1pm outside the US Embassy, Grosvenor Square, W1A 1AE (behind Oxford Street) and 1.15-2.15 outside Speaker's Corner, Hyde Park, opposite Marble Arch. https://www.facebook.com/events/464988880321972/

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About Me

The London Guantánamo Campaign has been campaigning since 2006 for the return of all British residents from the Guantánamo Bay prison camp, the release of all prisoners, the closure of this prison and other similar prisons and an end to the practice of extraordinary rendition. Also on Facebook and Twitter.